by Annie Rasmussen | Jul 28, 2020 | Everything, Fitness
We are starting with our “Discover Series” by sharing our favorite exercises to target your back. Throughout this series we are going to share with you various exercises, and specific workouts, for your entire body. Starting with the back was no mistake. Training the back is a favorite in our gym. Not just because we enjoy it, but because it is essential for maintaining a properly balanced muscular system in our society today. Read on for exactly HOW to strengthening your back! This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate links do NOT change the price you pay. However, we do make a small commission if you choose to purchase through our links. Why Should We Train Our Back? The muscles of your back include your latissimus dorsi, deltoid, rhomboids, and teres major and minor to name a few. It is really important to strengthen these muscles to open up the anterior of our shoulders. Improving posture, elongating the appearance of our body and walking with more confidence. The anterior of our shoulders get extremely tight as we sit, hunched over, all day and from any poor posture tendencies. Strengthening posterior of the shoulder and stretching the anterior of the shoulder will help us to open up that chest. Plus who doesn’t love the way a tank top hangs or a dress lays when they have a well developed back! Our favorite ways to strengthen our back There are a many variations of every exercise we listed below. We started with our favorite version of it and then offered some variations. The best advice we can give you is include some...
by Jane Krueger | Jul 19, 2020 | Everything, Fitness, Lifestyle
Have you ever heard of EMOM workouts? I hadn’t. I was seeing a ton of instagram influencers talk about them but I didn’t get it, they seemed too easy. But I was interested, these girls were doing EMOM workouts everyday and could say enough good things about them. So I wanted to try it out. And man was I WRONG!! These workouts will kick your butt. With these workouts having to balance between wanting to get all the reps done as fast as possible to have the most rest, vs wanting to slow down and save your energy is hard. Annie and I have done a couple of these workouts, and even one round can be killer. The full body workouts are definitely my favorite. They made me the sweatiest I had ever been after a 15 minute workout!! These workouts would be great for when you’re short of time but really need a good sweat. I love them after a long day at work because they are so quick and I always end up feeling like I just did a hour long killer workout! How to do an EMOM Workout Each workout is made up of 5 or 6 exercises. You have 1 minute to complete the reps for each exercise and then whatever time is left in the minute is your rest. Repeat each workout 3 to 5 times for a 15-30 minute workout! You only need three things for these workouts: space, a stopwatch and the discipline to get it done! Take a look below at 10 fast and effective workouts you can start doing today....
by Jane Krueger | Jul 8, 2020 | Everything, Fitness
The deadlift is my personal favorite. Probably because I can move the most weight, but I also like it because it is the simplest movement. When someone asks about the deadlift, I often say that you just have to stand up. In reality it is more complicated than this due to the weight. The load of the bar in front of your body pulling your shoulders forward really changes the process of standing up. To perform the most efficient deadlift, you need to stand up as normal as possible, by strengthening the muscles that are carrying the bulk of the weight. Let me clarify what I mean by “stand up as normal as possible”. I like to reference the position toddlers go into naturally – they keep their back flat/upright as they squat down to the ground from their hips. Now you don’t need or want to be that low, but the point is that this is our body’s normal movement pattern. We want to move evenly with the bar by flexing and extending at our hips and knees. We do NOT want them to move separate of each other. You see that when the lifters legs are straight or almost straight and they pull the rest of the weight to lock out using their back. In this article, I will talk about the major muscle groups in the deadlift and auxiliaries to strengthening each muscle. We will also discuss common issues, like above, and ways to help fix them. These exercises when used correctly can help improve overall strength and therefore maintain proper technique through the lift. This...
by Annie Rasmussen | Jul 7, 2020 | Everything, Fitness
As life begins to get busier and the world starts to reopen, a lot of us are faced with the same dilemma that has existed for a long time: busy schedules that don’t leave any time to get in a workout. Even if that is not the case, gyms are tough to even get into. And being in a pandemic has left many of us cautious about being in a crowded gym. At-home workouts theoretically sound great, but buying equipment is expensive and what would you even do? All You Need is a Chair! So far all I have done is presented you with problems you are aware of and are not sure what to do about. With one object that will change the game. Chair. Yes, a common household item. I am going to assume all of you currently have this in your home. To provide a solution to your problem we are going to use this one item to create a great total body home workout. This post will take you through 12 exercises broken up into lower body, upper body and core. This will not be an everyday workout, but can maybe this will be the kick start you need to ease back into the workout routine! LEGS Step-Ups Although we always talk about loading our posterior leg muscles, we can’t forget about those quads! Step-ups are a great exercise to not only burn out those quads, but also add a bit of heart rate. Simple and effective! Bulgarian Split Squat One of the toughest leg exercises to me personally! This exercise forces you to incorporate...
by Chellie | Jul 6, 2020 | Everything, Fitness, Lifestyle
Sometimes we can take for granted the fact that we own our gym and get to control the music. We forget that not everyone has that luxury. As we work our way through our 5 Week Online Training Program we realized that music IS the missing component. That is why we have created 3 playlists for you to use. They are each 30 minutes long. Convenient since ALL of the workouts are 30 minutes 😃 I had a ton of fun creating these playlists. Strolling down memory lane. Reaching out to friends and family to get their opinion. But the hardest part was creating workout playlists that were only 30 minutes long. I know that there are plenty of songs not on these lists. But I had to start somewhere and this is where we are. I hope you enjoy these and they fuel you through your next workout! Workout Playlist 1 Blessed to be in my 30s my FIRST thought was to do a throwback playlist. Thank goodness for my good friend Kelley as she helped me define the list even further. Total Request Live. If you were exploring your youth in the 90s and early 2000s you know exactly what I mean – TLR. Man was this hard! I hit the 30 minute mark so quickly. Then I had to try and break-up with songs for other songs and it was a mess. The extended version of this list could fill hours of music for an epic backyard barbecue, a long road trip, or spectacular dinner party with old school friends. I would suggest looking at the...
by Chellie | Jun 28, 2020 | Everything, Fitness, Lifestyle
Join us for a 5 week workout program starting on Monday June 29th running through the entire month of July. We will be providing 3 NEW workout videos per week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. You will be able to download cardio training programs to use on Tuesday/Thursdays (and/or the weekend). And you could win money! Keep reading for more information on the program and how to join. The best part is that this program is entirely FREE. HOW IT WORKS We created this program to try and help people with accountability and consistency. I am sure you have heard that it is recommended for our health to be intentionally active for approximately 30 minutes a day. I say intentionally active because it should stretch beyond daily activities like doing laundry. This program is set-up with the tools needed to be active everyday for 30 minutes. Videos – Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 8 am and 10 am we will post the strength workout for the day on our YouTube channel. The videos are 30 minutes in length. You should log on and upon completing the workout comment that you finished or how you feel. Cardio – There are five different cardio workout programs we have put together for you. They vary in length and intensity so there is something for everyone. We would LOVE for you to tag us in your cardio workouts so that we know you did them. Download them below. Treadmill Walk:Run Intervals Running Intervals Treadmill Hill Walking Intervals Low Intensity Steady State Cardio Elliptical Intervals Accountability – We will be using social media...
